THE BIZARRE TALE OF A CIA OPERATION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-01208R000100210006-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 18, 2011
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: August 26, 1977
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/18: CIA-RDP90-01208R000100210006-4
STAT
I
Or Zdae 4a ~t
WASHINGTON POST
26 AUGUST 1977
ThA-h CIA' Qv-kerat
fflun% f a
By John Jacobs and Bill Richards CIA headquarters to send more company . for the bug installations
Washington rest Stall Writ!rs money. His bills for the apartment were sent to "Morgan Hall." Hawkins
The apartment was a small duplex include Toulouse-Lautrec posters, a said. The apartment was listed In the
with a magnificent view of San Fran. picture of a French can-can dancer San Francisco telephone directory un-
cisco Say and with a Central Intel- and one item marked "portable toilet der Hall's name between 1956 and
ligence Agency spy named Morgan for observation post." 1958.
Hall who had a taste for martinis. When-someone apparently rammed Hawkins originally made his infor-
For hours Hall would sit perched; on a downstairs neighbor's car parked mation known to freelance reporter
a portable toilet watching. behind a. across the street from the, apartment, Paul Avery for Saa Francisco radio
-two-way mirror while his employee, a Hall quickly settled up out of his own station KSAN. A second bugging ex- . .
,durg?addicted prostitute, entertained -pocket rather than risk blowing his pert who worked on the apartment
unsuspecting visitors and slipped each cover, to a nosy insurance investiga- confirmed the story to The Washing.
'one an exotic chemical or biological tor, -according to the documents. ton Post
:agent. William Hawkins, now an electron- Hall was Identified as the operator-
Details of this bizarre secene were ics engineer in Santa Clara, Calif., of the CIA apartment In San Fran-
,supplied In the latest group of docu- said Hall used the name George, cisco during a hearing into the Intel-
:ments released by the CIA yesterday White when he was called to install ligence agency's clandestine drug and
and in interviews with persons famil- bugging equipment in the apartment mind control activities by the Senate
'jar with the project 'the- Intelligence at 225 Chestnut St-' is San Francisco. Subcommittee on Health. CIA offi-
,Rgency code named "Operation Mid- . rawkins, then a part-time student, vials have said he died two years ago.
night Climax." . said he had no idea that the apart- The CLA documents released yester-
The 1,647 pages of financial records meat was being used by the CIA.' day were part of the agency's top se.
refer to the San Francisco scheme un- Hawkins said Hall always referred cret MK-ULTRA mind control expert.
'der the more businesslike title of Sub- to the apartment as a "pad," and kept mental program conducted during the
C project 42. It pictures Hall as an agent photos of manacled Women wearing 1950s and 1960s. Among them is a tele.
more possessed with financial worries black stockings in cabinets by the phone ? receipt J or $60.50 with a
than voyeurism. . front window. "He kept a pitcher of scribbled explanation from Hall:
"Money urgently needed to pay martinis in the refrigerator," he said, "Calls made by addict prostitute
'Sept, rent," Hall apparently wrote to "and he'd watch for a while as I in while under covert observation - nec-
-his CIA superiors back in 1956, under- stalled a microphone ,,and then- slip essary in connection with under-
lining "urgently." ofL" cover investigation - ." -
- The financial documents show Hall Although 'Hall' called himself The documents list the purpose of
: repeatedly and ..anxiously reminding "George White," bills by. Hawkins' - Hall's apartment as a place to field
test "offensive" chemical and biolog- -
Ical warfare weapons, The project
apparently. began : in the early
1950s and lasted until at least .1965.
STAT A memorandum indicates that the
roject may have extended Still ter-,
:
p
as part of another CIA program
known as -'MK-SEARCH.
Other 31K-ULTRA''-documents -re- -
leased yesterday described:.,:.
? A' scholarly -project to -assess In
.psychological terms the- Impact "of
Communist. ideology -on the. popula? -
tion . of an Asian nation, apparently
China, although the- name was de-
leted.
? A "human ecology" study -of low
Income youths at basketball play-
grounds, to. discovers among other
things, how to channel "socially undo-
Arable modes of behavior. exempt! .
fled in delinquency; Into mare con-
struetive modes."' . =
?'A study of chemical characterls?
tics (LSD and other- compounds)- as
-part of the agency's program to
(r
?` ontrol human behav4or? An pml%L
? c
tious project was designed to?screea-.
In : "human trials".. effects such: as-
-'anttconvulsant, anti-spasmodic auldw
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/18: CIA-RDP90-01208R000100210006-4":...~